BMW has sold Formula One team back to Peter Sauber, on condition that the team receives an entry for 2010, after announcing that its original sale to Qadbak Investment Ltd. will not go ahead.
The German car maker announced earlier this year it was pulling out of F1, and said it had agreed a deal with Swiss company Qadbak for it to run the team in the future.
BMW said on Friday, however, that the Qadbak deal would not be completed.
Instead, the car maker has sold the operation back to Peter Sauber, who founded his F1 team in 1993 and ran it until BMW bought it four years ago.
Sauber said: "I am very relieved that we have found this solution. It means we can keep the Hinwil location and the majority of workplaces.
"I am convinced that the new team has a very good future in Formula One, whose current transformation with new framework conditions will benefit the private teams."
A further agreement with Sauber proposes personnel cuts from the current level of 388 to around 250 employees.
The future of the team in Formula One remains unclear, however, as the FIA has yet to confirm its grid slot for 2010.
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Re: BMW F1 team sold to Sauber
If they had signed, the entry could have passed to Peter Sauber. A far more credible entrant than the new teams.
If they had signed it would have added value to the team, the entry is not guaranteed, but more likely. They would have got more money and you can't critisise them for maximising the return.
Lotus is only Lotus by name only, nothing to do with Hethel or Ketteringham Hall.
We'll see when the season starts if they or any of the other new teams are credible and even arrive on the grid.
Re: BMW F1 team sold to Sauber
Richard, it will be a good idea for you to sit by the phone for the next few days. I hear that BMW seriously lack the benefit of hindsight and you may just be the man for them.
The idiots at BMW did the decent thing by not signing the Concorde. It gave another team with a viable entry, at the time, the opportunity to get their entry approved; that team being Lotus.
If BMW had signed, knowing full well that they were pulling out (announced the very same week), then you and others no doubt would have been criticising them for that. There'd also now be four places on the grid potentially in limbo, bearing in mind the issues with Toyota, who did sign.
Having afforded another team the opportunity to compete, BMW then did the sensible thing by submitting an application for 2010, which is in abeyance subject to either a 14th place being approved by the WMSC, or the Toyota entry being sorted out. All to be resolved in December. The FIA rate their application very highly.
Re: BMW F1 team sold to Sauber
It would have been far easier if the idiots at BMW had signed The Concorde Agreement and guaranteed an entry. I hope they are on the grid next year.